


Nothing Left But Freedom

by JLSigman



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-05-07 03:13:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5441387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JLSigman/pseuds/JLSigman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Rinoa and Fran have nothing left to lose</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing Left But Freedom

**Author's Note:**

> [Originally posted Jan 1, 2009](http://asylums.insanejournal.com/no_true_pair/61551.html)

When Hojo started screaming the prisoners cringed, because he usually made himself feel better by experimenting on one of them. There were three of them in one room, two female and one male. One of the females flickered long ears. The other two were silent, knowing her hearing was even better than the male's. Then there was the sound of the door slamming shut, and even though that meant he had left they still all flinched at the suddenness of the noise.

“His other lab was found,” the long-eared woman said. “The last of his Sephiroth experiments were released, and he cannot communicate with them.”

“What does this mean for us?” the young woman said, glancing at the door.

“Very little, at the moment,” the male sighed, his head on his paws. “He has less weapons at his disposal, true, but they were not his most powerful ones.”

“I believe he said he was going to go see what he could salvage,” the first woman said, “If we wait, we may have a better understanding of the situation.”

The dark-haired young woman curled into herself, knees to chest. “I'm tired of waiting,” she muttered.

There was no answer to that, not after this long. The long-eared woman lapsed into her usual silence. The male stood up, stretched, and padded to the younger woman, hoping to coax her into a thorough ear scratching.

Time passed, and food was delivered through the automatic system, but there was no sound of Hojo's return. The younger woman fell asleep against the belly of the male while the older woman hummed half-forgotten tunes of a world she would never forget, and still it was silent without. The silence lengthened into days, but they still dared not hope; Hojo was cruel enough to turn that against them as well.

Their first hint that things might be different was the sound of the doors to the main lab being blown off their hinges by a huge explosion. The young woman screamed in fright and clung to the older woman. The male stood on all fours, hackles raised, trying to sort out the mixed, confusing, and oh-so-vaguely familiar scents that were tickling his nose. Footsteps ran all around, then an unfamiliar voice called out, “Hey, here's that door!”

Another voice drawled, “Well then open it, Riku!”

The young woman blinked. “I... I know that voice,” she whispered. The time in the labs had clouded her memory, but she knew it was an older man, gruff but harmless.

The door opened and there he stood, gruff but not quite so harmless with a long spear in his hand. He blinked, and his face softened. “Red? By the stars, Red, is that you?”

Red barked happily. “Cid!” he cried out, leaping forward and standing on his hind legs, all dignity forgotten as he licked the other man's face. Cid laughed, wrapping his arms around the large feline, not protesting the treatment all that much as he stumbled backwards into the hallway wall.

“Cid,” the young woman murmured. She needed to tell him someone else was down the hall. She took a slow step away from the older woman, who had not moved. Another shape filled the doorway, painfully familiar and remembered beyond all others. She stopped and gasped at the pain in her heart at seeing him so similar, yet so different.

He made a choked noise. His gunblade fell from his hand as he rushed forward to catch her before she crumpled to the floor. “Rinoa,” he said, lightly stroking her hair.

“Rinoa?!?” Cid peered around the muzzle in his face. “Holy shit, Rinoa??”

Red suddenly remembered his pride and dropped back to the floor. “And this other woman is named Fran,” he said politely.

Cid's eyes widened as she lowered her head so her ears would not hit the top of the door frame. “Uh, nice to meet you, Fran.” He tried not to stare and failed miserably. “I, uh, don't remember meeting you before, but there, uh, may be someone back in town who - “

“Vincent,” Rinoa suddenly said from the safety of Leon's arms.

Cid stiffened in renewed shock. “What did you say?” he said, in a voice nearly as strangled as Leon's had been.

The first voice they had heard called from the other end of the hallway. “Hey, old man, down here, I think there's someone in this... thing.”

It shouldn't have been possible, but Cid actually did beat his four-footed friend in the race.

Fran had a small, mysterious smile on her face, watching the rest. She had plenty of time to find the one she longed for most. She would revel in her fellow prisoners' freedom until she could afford her own.


End file.
